Chase You -1- Formula 1

104. Based on a real story

Charles trusted me with the keys to his apartment. He and Liz (surprise!) would show up later. Lando and I thought it was a good idea to leave earlier. Most of our friends had left and I simply wanted a brief moment where I could be honest about my feelings. For the past few days, I had to pretend my world didn't completely light up when I saw Lando, and it got under my skin. So, I cherished the few minute walk to Charles's apartment, every second of it.

"Alone," Lando sighed, letting the door fall shut. He turned on the lights and I wrapped myself in a blanket that was draped over the couch. It was quite chilly outside. "Something changed here, didn't it?" I shrugged and followed as Lando inspected the apartment, then, a high pitched bark caught our attention. We snapped our heads to the corner of the room, where a small brown dog sat in a sort of cage. "That wasn't here when I woke up this morning," he pointed at the puppy.

"Oh my gods, this is Liz her gift," I realised, crouching down to meet the dog's height. Or well, I attempted. It was still a small dog, not much bigger than my hand. I looked at the little animal in awe. Teddy had grown so much compared to this little thing, even though they weren't the same breed. "Teddy is going to have a best friend!" I squealed. "Hi sweetie, what's your name?"

"We found it first," Lando said, his hand on my back as he went to sit on his legs. "Shall we open the cage?" I nodded and Lando leaned a bit forward to set the dog free. We were probably idiots for doing so, but we let the dog approach us at its own tempo.

We waited and waited, then it came out of the cage. It walked a few steps but slipped on the wooden flooring, nails scratching over the boards. It was careful to approach us, but we stayed where we were. It first went up to me, and sniffed a bit around. Lando was the second choice, nothing he wasn't used to.

"Will they notice it if we steal it?" I asked, softly as I didn't want to scare the dog away. "I'm already bonding with-" we needed a name, "-Dog over here."

"Would you notice it if people took Teddy?" Yes, and I'd be devastated if they did. "You cannot steal his dog, even though he hasn't met Dog yet..."

"Dog cannot be its name," I said, letting the puppy lick my hand. I was slightly disgusted, but everything to become friends with it. "We should let Charles name it." You know, since it's his dog. Lando nodded.

We were quiet, staring at a clock ticking on the wall. "Maybe he'll pick a stupid name." Lando broke the silence. "And as we will be its godparents we should at least help him to narrow down the choice."

"I mean we can at least make a list before he names it Monza or something like that," I added, trying to justify something that wasn't any of our business. "Do you have a paper?" Lando opened the notes app on his phone. "Okay, since it's Liz her gift, I'm suggesting Liz."

"So his dog and his- whatever, share the same name?" Lando asked. "Pass."

"Alright, Eli, after Elizabeth- you know that works? Elio if it's a boy." Lando typed the names in on his phone. "I like Sadie too."

"Hershey," Lando said, "since it's brown like the chocolates."Peanut, Pebbles, Scooby, Samantha."

"Maybe Charles can pick a name for himself since these are horrendous," I chuckled. "Samantha? Really?"

"Sammie or Sam for short," Lando explained. "It's a good name, on the list. "Mocha, Archie, Cookie."

"Archie isn't that bad," I responded. "But what about Niall, or Zayn or-"

"-This dog won't be named after One Direction," Lando was loud, clear and such a bore. "Teddy won't get introduced to-"

"-Diana, Olivia, Taylor," I simply continued listing names, that definitely had nothing to do with my obsessions. Lando typed both names on his phone, I tried my hardest not to laugh. "We have enough names by now, don't we?"